Mindful Breathing Technique

Nikki Juen of All That Matters demonstrates and explains mindful breathing technique. 

What it is:

Mindful breathing is a simple method of creating and cultivating an ever-deepening connection to the body and spirit. "Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgementally." Jon Kabat Zinn

What it does:

Mindful breathing is a present pause and a great way to connect to the wisdom within. Breathing tends to be short and shallow during stressful times like the holidays as we rush to meet our many obligations. By bringing attention to your breath, the nervous system is calmed enough to receive the intuitive wholeness that is always present. With regular practice you will find yourself less swayed by external forces.

How to do it:

Take a seated position, this can be on the floor at home, in a chair at work and even in a parked car. In this position, the spine, the shoulders and the head are stacked centrally over the hips. If you are sitting on the floor, raise the hips up onto a bolster or pillow to bring ease into the low-back. 

Rest the left palm gently over the heart and the right palm on the low belly below the navel. Take a few deep exhales settling down into your seat as you lengthen the torso with each inhale. Slide the shoulder blades gently towards the spine and soften the front of the chest. Relax the jaw and allow the tongue to be plump in the mouth.

Bring your awareness into the palms and notice how the breath creates expansion in the ribcage and belly. Slowly lengthen each breath so that you feel your breathing become even and deep. Even if you do not feel your belly moving with your breath, bring curious awareness to the hand on your belly and allow the awareness of your breath to encompass the entire torso. Breathe this way for ten breaths or until you feel calm and satisfied, slowly opening the eyes and releasing the hands. 

The space of the low belly governs our abilities to be in relationship with others. By moving into this part of the body with mindful breathing we become more present and return to the truth of our own heart before we interact with the world.

Nikki Juen, nikkijuen.com

Some Quick Whole Meal ideas

Whole Foods 101 is scheduled for a week from Sunday at All That Matters. We run this program three times a year. It is a power packed few hours. Tracey offers a overview of the basics of a whole foods diet, walks you through the co-op so you feel comfortable purchasing new foods, answer all your questions (even the dumb ones) and serves a tasty lunch. If you are new to this way of eating it will get you started, if you simply need some inspiration it will do that as well.

Here are some ideas on what can be for dinner tonight.

Think Rueben! Smoked tofu or pan fried tempeh with some Russian dressing and sauerkraut -grilled with a touch of cheese often hits the spot! 

Quesadillas take all of 5 minutes to broil on each side and the possibility for stuffing's are unlimited.

Pasta Pasta everywhere! Remember to use good quality pastas to create a hearty pasta salads- add beans, seafood, or chicken for protein, some tasty hearty greens and a simple dressing.

 Pasta Primavera is a great way to clean out the fridge- start with lots of garlic and saute all your veggies throw in some fresh or whole canned tomatoes- salt -basil and maybe capers if your feeling brave-wa la! 

Oriental Pasta cook up some udon or soba noodles while making a simple broth with a piece of kombu and some soy sauce or miso- throw in some cubed tofu and watercress or scallions an serve over noodles- a staple in Japan!

Burritos- you can make them and freeze them- there are the traditional ones- beans and cheese or branch out to the world of Wraps! 

Wraps can handle it all- grains, beans, cooked or raw veggies -top with dressing or salsa.

Fajita Night- this is a favorite at my house- bowls of refried beans, chicken, sauteed onions, avocado , roasted veggies , salsas and cheese and warm burrito wrappers are put out for everyone to create their own.

Enjoy more whole grains! We all need to eat more whole grains- so cook a batch of brown rice, barley, millet….. on Sunday and use it over the next few days in salads, soups, burgers, wraps, you can even add a generous  amount of water, reheat, blend and add raisins and walnuts for a breakfast cereal. Grain Salads can include an endless array of veggies and protein. Rice, roasted red peppers, currants, scallions, and roasted chopped almonds with a orange/olive oil dressing (add touch of chili powder!) yum. Have you made your own  tabboulah? It is  a middle eastern salad with bulgar, parsley, scallions, tomatoes, mint and lots of lemon- (use the finest bulgar you can find)…be brave- be creative- there is no missing with grain salads and they travel well for lunch on the go.

Grain Burgers - all you have to do is go down to Crazy Burgers in Narragansett to be inspired to create your own burger- (but I do have some of his recipes for the not so brave. A simple one I make with left over grain is to add roasted sunflower seeds, sautéed minced onion and celery ( if I am in a hurry I don’t even sauté) some soy sauce and make patties- dip them in cornmeal and pan fry. Once you cook the grain burgers you can freeze them and pop them in the toaster oven anytime.

Soup’s On! Soup is the way to go-they are power packed easily digestible. They are a great way to use grains- substitute barley or millet for pasta in any soup. Here is a quickie- put a bag of split peas, cut 2 carrots, 2 stalks of  cut celery, 2 cloves of garlic, water  and a piece of kombu- simmer for 35 minutes and flavor with salt or soy sauce or miso- my kids prefer this blended (an immersion blender works well).

 I think the trick is to keep inspired- so read through the cookbooks and magazines- especially from other countries- they have this ‘quick and good for you’ thing down. Google new veggies recipes. Whole Foods has a great recipe app. 

Meditation beneficial in creating change

Everyday through my newsfeed I receive new articles published the positive effects of yoga and meditation. It is exciting that science is validating what many have known for thousands of year. This research is making these disciplines more accessible and valid to millions. Nikki passed on these articles today. I look forward to a world where everyone meditates and does a bit of yoga!

"...these results are consistent with the overarching hypothesis that meditation may result in enduring, beneficial changes in brain function, especially in the area of emotional processing." Read the entire sciencedaily.com article here.

"Scientists are taking advantage of new technologies to see exactly what goes on inside the brains of Buddhist monks and other so-called "Olympian" meditators — individuals who meditate intensively and regularly. The neuroscientists hypothesize that regular meditation actually alters the way the brain is wired, and that these changes could be at the heart of claims that meditation can improve health and well-being" Listen to the entire NPR audio clip here.

Chickpea and Chocolate Chip Cookies?

These cookies are simple, flour-less, egg-less, dairy-less- but not tasteless!
Rachel our Office Manager brought them to work the other day and we ate them right up. Thank You Rachel!

15 ounces of whole chickpeas (if can- drain and rinse)
1/2 cup peanut butter (the real stuff)
1/4 cup maple syrup (the real stuff)
2 tsps vanilla extract

1 tbs baking powder

1/3 cup oatmeal (optional, I included it)

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Blend or Cuisinart all but chocolate chips. Fold in chocolate chips.
Mix in chocolate chips and bake at 375 until the top cracks, and the bottom is golden brown.

******

Another fun summer chocolate recipe I tried recently is 
Chocolate Salted fresh Pineapple from the Whole Foods site- they have some good recipes.

Click here for the recipe.

Good articles in the New York Times

Advice on Practicing Yoga in Middle Age Part 1
Advice on Practicing Yoga in Middle Age Part 2
Advice on Practicing Yoga in Middle Age Part 3

Anjaneyasana

Nikki Juen of All That Matters demonstrates and explains anjaneyasana. 

What it is:

Anjaneyasana is also known as low lunge or crescent lunge. In Hindu mythology, Anjana is the mother of the monkey-faced deity, Hanuman.

What it does:

Anjaneyasana is a stretch for the hip flexors and the quadriceps and is known to release tension in the hips. In this variation the length of the spine is in extension as the pose becomes a supported backbend with the help of the arms.

How to do it:

Start in downward-facing dog pose [adho mukha svanasana]. 

As you exhale step your right foot forward between your wrists and take two deep breaths in high lunge pose. Keeping the right knee directly over the right ankle, exhale and release the left knee to the ground. Pad the knee with a blanket or pillow if necessary. Draw the front foot and the back knee towards each other to create both a strong and supple foundation for this pose.

Inhale and interlace both hands on the front knee. Exhale and draw the low-belly up and in towards the spine, this action helps support a healthy arch in the low-back. Feel the length and extension from the back knee all the way up to the top of the head. Pause here for a few breaths, inviting opening in the front of the hips and low belly. 

While inhaling, allow the sternum to rise up as you slowly take a backbend over the back leg. You may leave your hand on the front knee or exhale and release the hands to block on either side of the back thigh or floor for a deeper backbend. Inhale to buoyantly open the heart and throat. Breathe deeply for three breaths, lengthening the body away from the ground with each inhale. Release by going back to downward-facing dog pose and switch to the other side.

If you are having trouble balancing in anjaneyasana, take the pose to a wall for support. Press the bent front toes and knee into the wall while keeping the rest of the foot on the ground.

Nikki Juen, nikkijuen.com

June Event, Store Sales

*Dr. Hauschka Event: Free Makeup Consultations: Friday, June 14th 2-5 pm. Pre-registration is required.

*All Dr. Hauschka Make Up 20% off

*New Dr. Hauschka Body Washes

*In honor of Father’s Day: All Men’s Clothing is 20% off

*Oofos Sandals are back in stock, take 10% off!

Interview with Joan Dwyer

I was recently interviewed by personal cartographer Leigh Vincola. She asked questions about All That Matters and health in general. If you would like to read it click here. What do you think? Joan

To Yoga or not....

It is 5:15 and a great yoga class is starting in 15 minutes that would be rockin' to go to. Strike a Pose with Jessie. I have been trying to go to a minimum of 3 classes a week. I realize life is much more joyful with 3 yoga classes under my belt. Yet this happens each and ever time- just as it is time to go - my mind creates more interesting things to do (like write a blog entry) or convinces me I do not 'need' yoga now. 
I am going to head off to yoga now and will come back and finish this blog entry to let you know if it was worth it. Tricky I am- now that it is a 'science experiment' I must go!
I am back. It was a great class and my neck and shoulders feel really different and somehow I feel more ready for tomorrow. It was best to go.
Experiment complete.

psychic medium & spiritual teacher coming

Carole Lynne

Friday June 7 -7:30-9:30pm 

Messages from Spirit
Join Carole for an evening of spirit communication.  Carole will receive messages and guidance from the higher realms as well as from loved ones in spirit. Members of the audience who receive mediumistic or intuitive readings can expect to experience comfort, healing, and guidance about their lives.

Saturday, June 8 - 1-5pm 

Take your experience to the next level in The Way Spirit Speaks Through Us.  Improve your confidence and your abilities as you learn to communicate with spirit. Through guided exercises, broaden your understanding of spirit communication while deepening your ability to link with the world of spirit. Includes a Q&A session on your personal spiritual development. 

Calling all 40 Day Graduates

Welcome to spring! As life outdoors is coming into bloom and more fresh veggies and fruits are available, I am thinking of you all and am so appreciative of the 40-days we all experienced together. 

In anticipation of All That Matters' 20th anniversary (2015), and because I have just started writing a book to support the All That Matters 40 Days program, I invite you to answer a couple of questions if you'd like to share your journey with me and others. (We'll include your stories - with or without your name, whatever you prefer - on our new website and in the 40 Days book.)

1) How was 40 Days for you? What brought you to the program in the first place? What impact did it have on your life both during the program and after graduation? 

2) What was the most powerful or significant part of the program for you?

3) Do you have suggestions about how we could make the program even better?

Email me anytime - preferably in the next month or so - at joan@allthatmatters.com.  

I just came across this quote from Matthew Sanford that perfectly articulates our purpose in offering the All That Matters 40 Days program:

"Connecting the mind and body is not just a health strategy. It is a movement of consciousness that can change the world." 

Here's to your health and to world-changing consciousness!

I look forward to hearing from you,

Joan

p.s. The next 40 days begins May 29th...if you know anyone who can use an inner revolution. 

Water Or Coke?

someone sent this too me- good to pass on to any soda drinker 

water:
1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.

2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.
3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.
4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study.
5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.
6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.
7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzz short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.
8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

And now for the properties of Coke:

1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.
2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.
3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous China.
4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.
5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.
6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.
7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix  with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.
8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains.  9. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

For Your Info:
1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in
osteoporosis.
2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials.
3. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!

Wisdom from George Carlin

always worth reading again!
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less. We buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things. We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less.

We've  learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships.

These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips,disposable diapers, throwaway morality, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete.

Remember, spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever. Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side. Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent. Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.. Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again. Give time to love, give time to speak and give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind."          

Devarshi Returns January 6

Don't miss Pantanjali's Sutras with Devarshi Steven Hartman from Kripalu.  Click here to learn more!

New Year's Intention Class!

Join Jovinna Chan, visitng teacher from Kripalu, on Friday, Jan. 4 and Saturday Jan. 5 to begin the New Year with clarity, intention and compassion.  Click here for more information and to register

Our 12 Days Before Christmas Sale - Going On Now!

Buy any pair of PrAna Pants and get a Top at Half Off - now through December 24 - click here for more on holiday shopping hours

Ladies Night! Join us Thursday, Nov. 29

20% off All Things PrAna All Day Long
PLUS Free PrAna Headbands to the first 50 Ladies through our door between 5-9pm on Ladies Night
Click here to learn more about what we have going on this Thursday...including Henna Tattoos!
Get in the Holiday Groove and Shop Local

Our Gift Card Sale - Going on Now through Nov. 30

Get 10% off every All That Matters Gift Card you purchase until November 30th.
Come in or go online - we ship Gift Cards for a flat fee to the lucky recipient or directly to you!
Click here to purchase Gift Cards online

Gratitude Plus our Gift Card Sale

Click here for 5 workshops to help get your Gratitude Flowing!

Devarshi Returns to All That Matters

Click here for the latest on Devarshi and other amazing programs offered in December and January